Medicare Managed Care

The types of managed care are differentiated by definition, operation, structure, and information needs. `HMOs were the most common type of MCO until commercial insurance companies developed PPOs to compete with HMOs' (Douglas, 2003, p.331). `HMOs are business entities that either arrange for or provide health services to an enrolled population after prepayment of a fixed sum of money, called a premium' (Peden, 1998, p.78). There are three characteristics that an HMO must have. The first is a health care financing and delivery system that provides services for members in a particular geographic area. Second, is ensured access to a complete range of health care services, health maintenance, treatment, and routine checkups. Last, health care must be obtained from voluntary personnel that participate in the HMO. The five HMO models related to the participating physicians are the Staff

Compare and contrast Medicare and Medicaid; including funding sources, fraud and/or abuse, and eligibility requirements for recipients

Health care plans are policies created to aid the patients in accessing medical services in form of insurance to cover the expenses incurred during treatment and hospital care. In analyzing the options given by two major health care plans elaboration will be based on two major insurance schemes namely indemnity insurance plan and Managed Care plan. All these vary yet with a common aim of providing medical services to the patients. In order for the analysis, consideration will be based on the costs and the coverage. These two plans differ in many important ways, more so in regard to how the services are offered, the way to obtain special care and the cost of care after recovery. Despite the diversities, the two care types share many

of the patient with controlling the costs of care, the issue of the uninsured began to grow. The concept of some sort of governmentally funded universal health care for all began over a century ago, however, never successfully implemented. From a historical viewpoint, individuals obtained health insurance by purchasing their own policy, as a benefit of employment, or through governmentally funded programs that required certain eligibility criteria be met in order to be eligible. If a person did not qualify for one of these types of health insurance, they generally were left without health insurance coverage.

The US has recently adopted a healthcare policy aimed to get more Americans insured. This policy is named the Affordable Care Act in 2010. “In 2013 there were 42 million uninsured individuals in the United States. “(The Common, pg. 153) There has since been increase in individuals who are covered either by private insurance or by Medicaid/Medicare which had a coverage increase with the new policy. It is believed that millions of people will now have health insurance compared to previous years.

According to Barton (2010) Long-term Care “emphasized continuous care over a period of at least 90 days for a range of acute and chronic conditions. Regardless of the length of time (i.e., from weeks to years), LTC is an array of services provided in a range of settings to people who have lost some capacity for independence because of an injury, a chronic illness, or a condition” (pg. 349). This is the description of someone who may have been in a debilitating car accident, an elderly person with Alzheimer’s and dementia, a person diagnosed with chronic mental illness, and individuals who are developmentally delayed or “disabled.” People who are placed in these type of long-term care facilities are usually screened using two different

Since the late 1980s, Medicare has reimbursed physician services using the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS), which encompasses 10,000 procedure codes. Each code is assigned resource-based relative value units (RVUs), which are designed to reflect physician work, practice expense, and malpractice expense. To adjust for local differences in cost of living, each RVU is modified using geographic practice cost indexes (GPCIs) and then converted to dollars using a “conversion factor.” This system rewards physicians who produce a high volume of services; not surprisingly, Medicare Part B expenditures have grown rapidly.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of two federally and/or state funded programs. The programs that will be discussed are Medicare and Medicaid. In this paper will be information about who receives Medicaid/Medicare, the services offered by these programs, and those long term services that are not.

Medicare Part D Drug Plan was created by Congress in 2003 to aid the elderly, disabled, and sick persons in affording their medication. Coverage for the drug plan went into affect January 1, 2006. This plan was called the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) (Cassel, 2005). The final bill that passed, was influenced by drug-company and health insurance lobbyists and focused mainly on the needs of those industries instead of the seniors it was meant to serve (Slaughter, 2006). These plans are operated by insurance companies and some private companies that have been approved by Medicare. Part D is optional only if a person carries health insurance that includes prescription coverage. If at retirement

Throughout the early 1980’s and 1990’s the Federal Medicaid program was challenged by rapidly rising Medicaid program costs and an increasing number of uninsured population. One of the primary reasons for the overall increase in healthcare costs is the

Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the population of people with access to health care insurance has increased by millions. Medicaid expansion has increased access to health care services for millions but the amount of physicians that accept Medicaid as payment has not increased to cover the increase in patients.

The Medicare and Medicaid programs were signed into law on July 30, 1965 by president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is an agency within the US Department of Health & Human Services in charge of administration of several key federal health care programs. CMS is responsible for health care programs such as, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), and the Children’s Health Program (CHIP) amongst other services.

Medicare Advantage Plans, an alternative to traditional Medicare, are operated by companies that contract with the federal government to provide all of the same services that people would normally receive from Medicare's Part A and Part B. Participants still pay their Medicare premiums, however, they may have be subject to different rules regarding care, which may include higher co-pays or additional services not covered by Medicare.

Medicaid insurance covers approximately 60 million Americans, according to their income. Medicaid is larger than any other single private health insurance program. The criteria for participating

Medicare is the United States government’s health insurance program for adults 65 and older. It is designed to assist in covering the cost of your health care, but it has its limitations. For instance, long-term care and some expenses are not covered. This means that you need a supplemental policy to cover those additional costs like Medicare Advantage plans.